English, Irish, and Scottish indentured servants did the majority of work on Barbados Plantations, until the 1640s. Unable to compete with tobacco from Virginia, Barbados Plantations switched to raising sugar cane which was in demand for tea, coffee, and cocoa. … Continue reading
The Booke of Psalmes The Puritan immigrants brought over several versions of the Psalms, including the 1562 edition of the Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter. In 1640 the Bay Psalm Book (The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre), … Continue reading
In October 1582 the Roman Catholic world adopted the Gregorian Calendar introduced by Pope Gregory XIII. But the English (and their future colonies) kept the Julian Calendar until 1752. March 24 was the last day of the year in the … Continue reading
Hemp and flax were two major crops in early New England. The age old lengthy, labor-intensive procedure of processing the flaxen or blond-colored fibers of flax plants into linen thread, was still used in the 1770s by David Hickok, a … Continue reading
Samuel and Joseph Hicox/Hickok, the two sons of William and Elizabeth Hitchcock, grew up in Farmington. Each of the brothers was married with children when they left Farmington for the new plantation Mattatuck (later called Waterbury), Connecticut, sometime around 1680. … Continue reading
Gristmills and sawmills were necessary for establishing towns. In 1650 New London, Connecticut (fifty miles southeast of Farmington), John Elderkin built a gristmill for Gov. John Winthrop Jr. Farmington’s John Bronson is thought to have built a sawmill and later … Continue reading
William Hitchcock, his wife Elizabeth and baby Samuel arrived on the Tunxis Plantation, in Connecticut before 1645, when the name was changed to Farmington. William built their home, on his home lot, in the middle of Main Street. The young … Continue reading
“Steeple hats and ‘sadd colors’ were typical of Puritan dress ways. Both men and women in New England did actually wear the broad-brimmed steeple hats of legend, historical revisionists notwithstanding.” “A list of these ‘sadd colors’ in 1638 included ‘liver … Continue reading
It is the 1600s. You and your family plan to sail from England, across the Atlantic Ocean, to a new land (wilderness), sight unseen. What do you need to take that will last a year while you get settled? At … Continue reading
